Next Gen
by NinjaKiki3
Summary: This is a fanfiction I am writing with a girl who goes by the name Fangirl on Masters of Spinjitzu Amino. This is a next gen story. NOTE: some cussing and blood!
1. Chapter 1

Liam POV

Liam winced as the sharp edge of the glass scraped his chin. He set the shard down and lifted up two fingers to the cut on his face. He pulled them away red with blood.

"Liam! The hell is taking you so long?"

Liam swore, grimacing at his face in the cracked mirror. The cut was small and not deep enough to cause worry. It would probably heal within a few days, but during those few days, he'd have to suffer through snide remarks and jokes aimed in his direction.

"Liam stop being a p*ssy and taking so long!" Crone called.

Liam ignored him. Crone would definitely be the one to lead on the jokes.

He ran the broken shard of glass under the faucet and washed the blood down the sink. Maybe nobody would notice. Or if they do, Liam thought, I can take it.  
He'd been living with this group of boys in the Brass Sword gang for three years. He was used to some abuse. Besides being the butt of a few jokes now and again was nothing compared to the advantages being part of the group provided.  
The streets of New Ninjago City were no place for a kid. Liam looked himself over in the mirror. He had a sharply defined face, narrow and slightly sunken and dirtied. He wasn't exactly a kid anymore. He was seventeen, nearly an adult...But regardless, the streets were no place for anyone.

Gangs, like the Brass Sword, the one he was a part of, as well as worse ones could attack you or rob you at any second if you were alone or in a secluded enough area. Sometimes even if you weren't. It depended on how many of them jumped you and how many there was of you. They took anything of value you had, beat you to pulp just for the fun of it, and sometimes forced you to join them...or else they'd kill you.

But Gangs weren't even the worst part. The pound was rounding up hundreds by the daily. Nobody knew what happened to those kids. They never came back to the streets. Sometimes they'd you could find a friend who'd been taken lying on the body pile outside the city.  
The body pile was a gruesome and brutal enough site to behold as is. A great pile of stench. People were doing by the dozen and nobody had room or time to bury them all. Most of the bodies had been orphans or homeless vanguards. There were more and more homeless every day and if you didn't know how to survive, you died. Starved haunted faces or brutally beaten beyond recognition forms were hard enough to look at...But the twisted deformed agonized forms of the bodies from the pound were enough to drive you insane if you stared at them long enough.

The worst part was, soon enough they would all be in the pound. It wouldn't just be people they'd heard of or people they knew. It would be them. The mayor wanted everybody off the streets. "All the riff-raff," as he called it. And Nobody was doing anything to stop him. Liam snarled, promising himself that _he _would do something. He would kill that guy.

He wiped some of the blood on his face on the back of his hand. Maybe not today though.

Finn POV

"Finn, get away from there," Lora snapped. Finn was watching the water slowly drip off the edge of a pipe. Slowly he reaches out his hand and it started to run backward. The small little water droplet moving back up towards the pipe instead of splashing down onto the ground.

"Finn!" Lora smacked his hand, making him lose concentration. The water rushed back down the pipe.

"Ow," he winced pulling his hand back in.

"I told you not to do that," Lora hissed.

"Sorry," Finn sighed rubbing his hand, "I didn't mean to. I forgot."

"Well, remember!" His sister snapped, her temper was high, as it always was when they hadn't eaten in a few days.

"We can't afford for you to forget when other people are around. People will see. Do you want to end up like-" she stopped, cutting herself off as she realized what she'd been about to say.

Mom and dad. Lora hardly ever talked about them. Finn hardly remembered his parents, but for Lora, it was a different story. She'd been nine years old while he was only six when they disappeared.

They'd been woken in the night to hear their mother scream. Finn had never heard his mom scream. She was always the tough one, tougher than his dad even. Lora had rushed into his room. There was an odd smell of smoke about her.

"Finn! We have to run!" She'd screamed. Finn had been tired, and hardly remembered getting out of bed and following her. The smoke was thicker outside his room and he could see flames down the hallway. He coughed, trying to find clear air. Lora seemed unfazed by the smoke but was stricken pale with worry and fear. She grabbed him by the collar and rushed him out of the burning building. They fled not slowing down even when Finn complained his legs were tired. They finally stopped ten blocks away from the burning building in an ally by a costume shop.

"What happened?" Finn panicked, his confusion overwhelming him.

"They took them," Lora said quietly tears streaming down her angry face.

"Who?" Finn asked.

"Mom and Dad. The mayor took them."

"But Mom and Dad are ninjas," Finn had pointed out.

"Well, they aren't anymore. They aren't anything. They're dead," Lora's voice shook with anger and emotion.

"Dead?" Finn's own voice began to tremble as well. He didn't want to believe it. He couldn't. How could they just die? Ninja never quit. Wasn't that what they always said? Ninja didn't die. They were invincible.  
His dad was Jay, the lightning Ninja, it would be ridiculous to think there was a situation he couldn't quip his way out of. And his mom was Nya, the water ninja. She was stronger than anyone he knew. And yet, something about the look on his older sister's face told him it was true. He started to cry; big fat tears rolling down his cheeks in torrents.

His parents were gone. They were dead! He looked desperately up at Lora, with one last shirk of hope that she would deny it. She simply shook her head. He dissolved into further tears.

"Hey, it's just you and me from now on, buddy," Lora had put up her brave front and told him, "but that's ok. We're strong. We're survivors. They tried to get us too, you know. But here we are. We got away. "

Finn hadn't really been too reassured by his sister's words, but he was inspired by her show of bravery to suck it up and make the best of things as well. So he took her hand and let her lead him away...

That had all been nearly seven years ago and his actual memories of his parents had faded with time. Lora told him that this was probably best and refused to say much about their parents or that night herself. So Finn had gotten used to living on the street with just Lora. Sure, she was annoying and bossy, but she was the only family he had left. And she knew more about survival then he ever did. She was the one keeping them alive. Hiding them from the mayor and the pound and whatever else threats there were.

"Look, just promise me, you won't do it again, ok?" Lora sighed, and lowering her voice she added, "you know as well as I do, the mayor is still looking for us."  
"I'll try harder," Finn nodded with resolution.

Suddenly, a little brown dog came around the bend.

"Shoo!" Lora said harshly. "Go on! Get out of here!" Then Finn noticed something in the dog's mouth.

"Wait…" he said quickly as he slowly approached the dog. The dog wagged its tail and dropped the thing on the ground, and then turned around and ran off.

"That was… Odd," Lora murmured in confusion.

Finn picked up the soggy paper and unrolled it. What he saw made the breath catch in his throat. Lora's curiosity got the better of her, and she looked over Finn's shoulder at the paper and gasped.

"No. Absolutely not!" she said fiercely.

"Please?"

"No!"

"Pretty please?"

"Still no!"

"What if we can find out something about what's going on?" Finn asked, pleading with his sister. Lora sighed.

"Fine. But we have to prepare ourselves. It'll be a long journey."

"YES!" Finn exclaimed, excited to be leaving the town.

Aki POV

"ErAghhhh!" Aki screamed in frustration, throwing the stick aside against the wall. It cracked and flew back at her in shards. She grimaced shielding her face with her arms from the splinters.

"Can nothing go right?" Aki steamed. She had lost another fight. She seemed to be on a losing streak. This time the kid hadn't even been twice her size. He'd been small actually and shrimpy. But he'd had a mouth and had got himself into the fight.

Maybe he'd wanted to fight, Aki thought bitterly, the taste of sour defeat still fresh in her mouth, so that he could humiliate me.

He'd been fast and she'd misjudged him. He'd feigned a limp so well before the fight she'd actually believed it. But the kid was no cripple, and now he'd taken her food.

Aki held territory in the western suburbs of Ninjago. There was a dumpster teeming with trash, and a nice loaf of burnt bread had been tossed upon the bounty hold. The scrappy kids, the one she'd lost to, had limped on up to it and took it as though it were the most ordinary thing in the world to do.

Aki had watched from the shadows of the back alleyway. When he walked by her, she stuck out her leg and tripped him. Cripple or no, she couldn't have had him taking her property. She'd expected him to fess up but instead, he challenged her and insulted her.

"All this training," Aki thought darkly casting a look about the abandoned dojo where she held her bare, "for what? To be beaten by some little thing! I'll never rescue mom and dad if I continue on this way..."

Her brooding and self-loathing was interrupted by a sharp yap. Aki turned swiftly. A brown short-haired dog with large floppy ears had leaped over the broken door Aki had lain across the entryway. Its eyes stared at her curiously, and it cocked its head as though confused.

Aki tensed up for a fight, wary. Stray cats and dogs could be vicious, eager for the taste of blood. They feasted off of the body pile and carried stray limbs back into the city dripping with blood. They earned their taste for human flesh there, and for some, it could never be quenched.

Aki slowly backed away from the dog. It didn't look vicious, but looks could be deceiving. Its hair looked as though it had recently been petted, silky and shiny even in the dim light of the martial arts studio. It wasn't matted nor dirtied like most strays. It also hadn't managed to carry too bad of a stench with it like the ones that came back from the body pile.

In fact, it had an innocent dog smell to it. Not entirely pleasant, but bearable. Perhaps it had just recently been released into the wild. Perhaps it wasn't used to hunger and abuse and was merely seeking out a friend and a place to stay. Perhaps.

Aki edged closer to it, keeping her self cautious and on her tiptoes, ready to spring back at any moment that the animal attacked.

The dog stayed in the same spot, watching her with an air of observance.

"Whatcha got there?" Aki asked, noticing something for the first time. The dog had something in its mouth, and it wasn't a hand. It was wet with saliva but had a warn grey papery look to it. At her prompting, the dog dropped the paper from its mouth onto the floor.

Aki bent and swiftly snatched it up careful to always keep her eyes trained on the dog. It was a paper: A newspaper rolled thick and tied with a fraying rubber band. It looked rather fresh, but the words bled together with the dogs' saliva making it hard to read. Aki carefully slid the paper out from the rubber band, her eyes still on the dog. It didn't flinch. She unrolled the newspaper and stopped.

Somebody had written a message on the back of the paper, on the inside of the roll. In big black sharpie, letters was written:

"Go to the Hanging Temple."

Aki frowned. The hanging temple? That had been abandoned for decades...

It was also nearly impossible to get to, located near the summit of the Wailing Alps. She looked up at the dog, wondering if it might offer some clue as to who had sent her the message.

Was it a threat? Who would she meet there? Was it an invitation?

The dog had suddenly disappeared though. She hurried over to the door and jumped the fallen door. Looking down New Ninjago City's street she could see empty streets with broken rusted cars sitting on the side of the street or rammed into storefronts. There was no sign of life and no sign of the dog.

She couldn't even be sure there had been a dog, to begin with. Aki glanced down at the newspaper and the message. It was definitely real and tangible.

"Is this a joke?" She wondered out loud to no one in particular. The empty street replied with silence.

Aki turned back into the building she was staying in. She was about to toss the paper aside in frustration, but something caught her eye. Beneath the writing was a news story, an old one and yet this newspaper was in a brand new condition other than the dog's marks and the scribbled message. The story wasn't just about anyone, either.

It was from seven years ago before the mayor got to the press... And it wasn't just about any day. It was about the day the ninja disappeared. The day her parents were taken...

Suddenly, Aki found herself thrusting her few belongings and items into an old dojo duffle bag, and pulling on the only coat she had. It was going to be a long hard cold journey to the top.

Niela POV

Niela Garmadon was not the perfect candidate for a ninja. Something everyone constantly reminded her of.

She worked her frustration away though, tinkering and hammering away at her suit.

"What has you so angry now?"

Niela looked up from her pile of circuit boards and electronic equipment.

Her AI was the exact replica of the late Cyrus Borg. A digital software implanted in her computer, his image was slightly bluish but other than that his serious wrinkles and a broad smile were the exact same as the man who had helped her father years before. Unfortunately, the similarities seemed to stop there.

This Borg was nothing like the other. He to have a coding malfunction that had permanently damaged his personality to that of an optimistic psychopath. He seemed to delight at the mention of violence and had a strange happy perspective on everything... especially when there was cause for the opposite of a celebration.

"Have the bullies been bothering you again?"

"No," Niela replied shortly. She wished she'd never told Borg about her bullies. It had been a low point and Borg had been the only one there to listen, but now he seemed to delight in asking about the latest prank or mishap they had pulled upon her. Sometimes she was sure Borg downright hated her.

"Come on," Borg laughed electronically, "I know you're angry. You never come down here unless you are."

That was true. Niela noted with annoyance. She hated when Borg was right.

"If it's all the same to you," Niela said, prying at a screw, "I'd prefer to keep my problems to myself."

"Going to make me guess at it?" Borg snickered.

"Go ahead," Niela told him. She wheeled over around the table her suit was laid out on to grab a different wrench.

The suit was almost complete, she realized with satisfaction. She'd just need to fix one of the blasters. Then she could start running more serious test runs.

"Did they dump you out of your wheelchair again?"

"No," Niela replied absentmindedly focusing on prying a bolt with the wrench.

"Throw spitballs at you?" Borg guessed next, "Oh! Did they tease you about your dad again?"

"No, I told you. It's nothing to do with the other kids," Niela sighed.

"A teacher? Did they hold you back in class? Ooo, call you out? Perhaps they even went as far as to expel you? It really is too much to hope they beat you," he added the last thought rather sadly.

"No," Niela replied sharply, her patience tried, "I guess you're just going to keep guessing if I don't tell you though."

"Probably," Borg admitted.

"Alright, fine, then if you must know, I met a boy," Niella admitted, rather reluctantly.

Borg cooed, something which Niella was sure was so far from how the previous Borg would have reacted, that if her father were here, he would have laughed. But Lloyd was not here, and Niella was not Lloyd. She was not amused by Borg's reaction.

"Not like that," Niella rolled her eyes with annoyance, "he was living on the streets."

"So? Does that make him less of a person?"

"No," Niella snapped, "It just means I wouldn't like him like that or anything. Anyway, I offered him some food. I could see all his ribs, and his face was all sunken in. I was sure he was starving to death. He didn't take it though."

"Maybe he didn't trust you," Borg offered, his delighted tone fading as he realized there was nothing to offer him amusement in the situation.

"Maybe," Niella nodded, "but it was more than that, that's bothering me. He seemed oddly familiar… and he recognized me. Which isn't too odd, I am Niella Garmadon after all, I'm kind of infamous. It was just that I felt like I hadn't just seen his face on the street once or twice, I felt like I'd knew him., or that I was supposed to know him. But I have no idea who he is…"

Borg laughed at her frustration, "Well, that is interesting. Perhaps you knew him as a child?"

Niella paused from working on her mech suit. She hadn't thought of that. Sometimes she forgot that Borg still pertained some of his predecessor's IQ.

"Maybe I did know him. Thanks, Borg," she found herself saying, but the thought wasn't particularly comforting. She knew she was luckier than most kids had been when The Mayor had started taking over and bombing the resistance, and making people disappear in the middle of the night. Her dead parents had left her with a small fortune in which to pay off her schooling and living expenses. Other kids were living on the streets though, wasting away to nothing. Some of her playmates from her childhood were probably dead right now.

She tried to help whenever she could, but she had to budget the money to pay for her living expenses. And to top it all, her mech suit experiments didn't pay for themselves. Perhaps it was selfish to keep working at it, but she consoled herself by telling herself she was only making it so that one day she could use it to help people break free of the Mayor's reign.

Giving to the "street kids" was also dangerous. The Mayor had strictly forbidden it, and she was already on tight enough terms with him as it was. The only reason he allowed her to still be breathing was actually because of her legs. She was paralyzed from the waist down so he was certain she could cause no harm. She couldn't lead a rebellion. She couldn't even stand.

So long as Niella supported him publicly he let her live. He seemed to think it added insult to the memory of her father. Niella didn't care if it did or not. She knew in her heart that she didn't support his bigotry and that one day she would be able to say that. But until then, she had to stay alive somehow…

"Oh, by the way," Borg interrupted her thought process, "someone left something for you outside the front door."

"Who?" Neilla looked up at the monitor, curious. Borg switched the screen from himself to a replay of security footage from the camera outside her front door. A little brown dog was seen trotting up the sidewalk towards her house, a rolled newspaper in its mouth. It stopped at her doorstep and delicately placed the paper down before turning and immediately sprinting away.

"Interesting," Niella frowned, wondering what it could mean. She set her wrench down, wheeled herself up to the ramp that led to her basement, and found the newspaper outside her front door. When she unrolled it and came back inside. She was greeted by a strange message on the inside of the newspaper roll.

"Go to the hanging temple?" She read aloud. Niela pondered at this. Who sent this? Why? Where had that dog come from? Was this really meant for her? Or had the dog simply picked up a paper somewhere and dropped it off here? It had seemed decisive though, not wandering around as it came up to her door…

Which led her to wonder, if it was meant for her, was it a joke or a threat? A kind of "Go Kill Yourself" message for supporting the Mayor? It would be nearly impossible to scale the wailing Alps sheer cliff like surface to get to the temple, and the wind was particularly cold and strong in that area if she remembered rightly. Her dad and the ninjas had once climbed it to defeat Morro, years before she was born. He had told her the story when she was little. It had not been an easy climb with their mechs, and they had to learn to use Airjitzu to really complete it. If it was nearly impossible for a ninja, how hard would it be for a cripple?

"You could use your mech though," Borg's face appeared on her living room t.v. screen.

"Borg!" Niella glanced up at him reprovingly. It was creepy how he sometimes appeared to read her thoughts. Besides, she had told him he not to follow her around the house.

"How many times have I told you to stay in the basement?" she relented, "You're creepy!"

"Am I?" Borg chuckled, and then added in a much too innocent to be a sincere voice, "I'm was merely trying to do my duty to look out for you. Such a climb would be impossible without the contraption you're building."

Niella rolled her eyes, "Sure."

But he did have a point, no matter how much she hated to admit it. She could use her Mech if she finished it. It wasn't as large and cumbersome as the ninjas had been years before. She'd built it to be man size and specifically geared towards herself. It would be fairly secure once it was done, and although it would be a risky venture, it was possible it might make it to the top of the Wailing Alps.

"But it isn't finished," She reminded herself more than Borg.

"Isn't it? It will be by tomorrow I'm sure," Borg told her, "you're so close."

Niella thought about it before her eyes narrowed suspiciously at Borg, "This isn't some ploy to finally get me killed, is it?"

"Of course not!" Borg feigned shock at the suggestion.

"I thought you said the mech idea was foolish," Niella persisted. He had always laughed at the idea that she would be able to walk around in it and even fly and fight. It wasn't like Borg to suddenly gain support for something.

"Did I say that?" Borg asked.

"Not directly, but more or less," Niella replied.

"Well then you have no proof," Borg said confidently, "I never said I didn't believe in the idea, so I never did."

"Whatever," Niella knew it wasn't worth arguing over. Something else was playing at her mind. He had been right about the mech again. She would finish it rather soon. She had done several test runs already, and the only thing that was missing was a few modulated updates. But she'd need more time to test it once it had the improvements. She couldn't just throw herself out there in the cold on the side of a mountain without any clue as to whether she would have any safety line or not.

"You're always saying you want a chance to prove yourself, this could be it," Borg added temptingly.

That was true. She did want to prove herself. She wasn't just the "Mayor's pet" as the boy on the street had called her. Borg wanted her to do it, so it couldn't be a very good idea… but if it was possible, why not accept the challenge? She had to try. She might die, that was true, and that bothered her. But what was she doing here that was so worth living for? Even the Street Kids refused her help.

Her decision was made.

"Borg, compile everything I'll need to bring into a list. I've got to finish that suit."

Keki POV

Keki noted with a certain satisfaction that the man's nose had broken not once, but at least twice, in different locations. Keki thrust the man away towards the wall of the alleyway, and the man slid down to the ground, unconscious, blood streaming from his face.

Keki sighed. He might as well get it over with and see if the man had anything of value anyhow. It hadn't taken much effort to knock the man out for bothering him, given his super strength due to being the son of the late Elemental Master of Earth, but it still would be nice if there was some composition for his trouble. Maybe something that would give him food. Keki fished through the man's pockets and turned them up empty. His mood fell slightly, but he really hadn't expected much from the vagabond.

He was about to leave the man to get picked up by the pound when something else caught his eye. Niella Garmadon. He ventured forward toward where the alley broke out into the street. He stood so that he would block her view of his unconscious companion in the alleyway, and watched her.

She stopped catching his eye, "I don't have much," She sighed, "but you can have the rest of my lunch if you'd like."

She started to search through her backpack which was seated on her lap.

"What?" Keki sputtered alarmed, "I don't want your food!"

"I don't have anything else to give you," Niella shrugged.

"I don't want anything," Keki told her. He hadn't meant for her to even see him really. He'd thought the cover of alleyway would have been enough to protect him from her view. All he'd known was that he couldn't risk her seeing him beating up that other homeless man. His goal had been accomplished, but he couldn't help but want to give her a little piece of his mind as long as she was here.

"I don't want anything," he repeated, hardening his voice.

"What do you mean?" Niella appeared confused. Did she not know how much everyone hated her? She kissed up to the Mayor, the terrorist who was killing the people by the dozen.

"I mean...why not? You must be hungry," Niella gave him a meaningful glance.

Keki scowled. In truth, he was famished. But he was always hungry, so he could live on with the feeling for a little while longer.

"What I meant was, I don't want anything from you. You're Niella Garmadon."

Niela's face portrayed her hurt and confusion for only a flicker of a second as she struggled to control her features into an indifferent expression.

"Just leave me alone, and don't tattle on me, Mayor's pet," Keki spat before Niella could say anything else.

"..ok," She nodded, quietly, "sorry," and started moving away again.

Keki glared at her as she left. She thought she was so kind, feeding the "riff-raff" of the city, all while the mayor was feeding her out of his pocket. She was not kind and she certainly wasn't the "Green Savior" that her father was supposed to have been. Not that that mattered anymore. Because where were the ninja now? Gone, when they needed them most.

Keki turned back down the alley, a disturbing thought crossing his mind. He wondered what his dad would've done if he hadn't been murdered the year before the other ninjas disappeared. Would he have fled with them? Wherever they went? Or would Cole have been the one brave enough to stay and fight?

Keki paused his thought, a small brown dog had just scampered past him and yet he hadn't seen the dog enter beforehand. It wasn't the only thing either. It had left something behind. A newspaper had been dropped at his feet as the dog passed.

Keki picked it up. Could it be a coincidence? He wondered flipping it open. The issue was from the very day he'd been wondering about, the day the ninja disappeared…

Rose POV

Rose woke up, stretched, and sighed. She hadn't found a family that would let her sleep in their home the night before, so she had slept on a bench. All of a sudden, she saw a little brown dog creep up to a boy who was lying in a nearby alleyway. With a shock, she realized it was Liam! They had bumped into each other a few times, and secretly, Rose had a crush on him.

The dog approached the boy and dropped what looked like a newspaper in front of Liam's face. Liam's eyelids fluttered and he jumped up and away from the dog, before noticing the newspaper. Liam opened the newspaper and frowned at it, before rolling it up and carefully stashing it behind a trash can. Liam looked around, and Rose curled up on the bench, hoping to not be seen. After a few moments, she peeked over the edge of the bench. Both Liam and the dog were gone.

Rose quickly tiptoed over to the newspaper's hiding place, and she carefully pulled it out. It was an article about when the ninja went missing, and she almost dropped it in surprise. Then she saw writing. The writing said, "GO TO THE HANGING TEMPLE."

Rose gasped and almost dropped the paper again, before carefully rolling it back up and putting it away with her still shaking hands.

"There's only one choice," Rose murmured. "I have to go too. Or I may lose him…"

Rose quickly looked around to make sure no one was around, before starting to jog in the direction of the Hanging Temple.


	2. Chapter 2

Liam POV

Liam knew to desert his gang, the Brass Sword, could end in death, but there was something even more oddly cryptic about the message he had received.

He pulled the hood of his sweatshirt up over his face hoping that no one would recognize him as he headed through the streets. He kept to following back roads and allies he knew, but this didn't ease his nerves much. The members of his gang also happened to know most of these passageways. He wasn't sure what he would do if he ran into one of them.

Liam had little with him other than the clothes on his back. He'd even left the newspaper behind, afraid that if he were confronted that would be used as evidence against him. He didn't know how he was going to survive outside of Ninjago, or what waited for him on the other side of the city's gates. He wasn't even sure he knew exactly how to get to the Wailing Alps, it had been years since he had even left the city. He told himself to focus on the present. He had to first make it out of the city before he could even begin to think about any of that.

He had the strangest feeling that someone was following him as he neared the outskirts of New Ninjago City. He paused after taking a few steps, waiting to hear if he would hear footsteps echoing after him. There was nothing but silence. He shrugged, trying to shake off the feeling, and started walking again. He wanted to sprint past the gates the Mayor had installed and become free of the place, but he knew better than that. Running would only draw attention to himself and make him look suspicious.

He sauntered past the gates, drawing himself up to look confident of where he was going. The stench that hit him as he walked past the gates nearly sent him puking and staggering back into Ninjago. He swallowed hard as he caught sight of the source of the smell...the body pile. He trained his eyes to look away and started off again.

The road to Ninjago was lined by grassy hills that were once luscious with farmers crops. Now they were more dried and barren, the farmers who had once lived here long gone. Liam didn't know what had happened to them, but he assumed that it, like many other things, was the fault of the Mayor.

As Liam continued on outside of New Ninjago City he saw that many things had shriveled up since he had last been outside of the city as a boy. Everything was dead. He stifled his anger as he continued along. _I'll do something about this, he _told himself, _maybe I'm going to do something soon. Who knows what I'll find at the temple? But there's nothing I can do now, so there's no use in getting angry..._

Niella POV

Niella Garmadon was flying over the city of New Ninjago. The wind whipped past her, but she couldn't feel it from inside her mech suit. She felt queasy looking down at the seemingly small little buildings and streets. She had never flown this high before in her test runs, but she had to be sure no one down below would see her very well.

"At this rate, you'll get there by next year," Borg complained in her ear, his voice muffled against the sound of the wind outside. Niella had uploaded him into the computer hard drive of her suit so that he could help give her directions and advice. She was already regretting it.

"I'll be there by nightfall, you'll see," Niella told him, but she boosted her speed nevertheless.

Liam POV

Liam stared up at the mountain, knee deep in snow. It was impossibly cold, and his teeth chattered wildly against each other. It had taken several days of tracking through Ninjago and begging for food to get here, but he was already regretting it. He couldn't shake the feeling that he was extremely ill-prepared. Sure it had been cold as he approached the mountain, but he had a feeling it got much worse...he couldn't imagine the temperature it must get to at the altitude of the temple.

If there's a temple, he thought suddenly. He had heard a few stories, a passing word here or there, but there wasn't a lot of people left to confirm the fact that the temple existed. It was rumored to have belonged to Sensei Ying, the cousin of Sensei Yang, who had invented Airjitzu. It had supposedly been abandoned due to the harsh environment and weather circumstances. Looking up at the snow-draped steep mountain, he could see why.

Shivering he took a determined step forward. There was only one way to the top.

_Thirty minutes later…_

Liam slowly plodded on. He was too cold to even shiver anymore. The wind froze his skin, almost burning. He was sure his eyes were going to freeze over at any moment. The wailing of the wind for which the Alps was named, haunted him. It was the only sound he could hear. His thoughts were becoming clouded and vague. He wasn't sure how far he had gotten, but suddenly he realized he could go no further. He tried to take a step and even as he did so his body swooned forward, his face landing into the snow, his eyelashes shuttered closed and stayed there, too numb to move.

Rose's POV

Rose plodded up the side of the mountain, trying to keep Liam in sight. Rose shivered. Even with the winter jacket, she was able to find, she was freezing. Suddenly, she saw Liam fall into the snow. She forced herself to rush over to him and saw that he was unconscious. She looked around, hoping to spot some shelter nearby. She spotted a cave after a few moments and started dragging Liam towards it, slowly but steadily.

Inside the cave, there was a pile of sticks and some flint and steel, as if someone was expecting them to need warmth. She dragged Liam deeper into the cave and got a fire started. She propped Liam up against the cave wall, facing the fire. As for her, she kept looking at the mouth of the cave, occasionally coming back to the fire for warmth.

_Thirty Minutes Later…_

Rose came back to the fire to warm up and add some sticks, and as she started to turn back to the cave opening, she saw Liam's eyes flutter open. then he jumped up in surprise, looking around with fear in his eyes.

Finally, Liam's eyes focused and landed on Rose.

"Who are you?" he demanded, trying to keep his voice from shaking. Rose removed her hood. "YOU?!" Liam shouted angrily. "HOW did YOU find me?!"

Rose felt hurt, and tried and failed to keep the hurt from showing on her face. "I followed you," she whispered.

"W-why?" Liam asked, a bit softer.

"I have my reasons," Rose said firmly as she looked to the side, avoiding his eyes.

"Thanks for saving me…" Liam murmured reluctantly.

"You're welcome," Rose said softly, still avoiding his eyes.

"Come on. We've got a long journey ahead of us," Liam said as he headed to the cave opening.

"Wait!" Rose called. Liam immediately stopped and turned to face her.

"Y-yes?" he asked, his teeth already chattering.

"Here," Rose said as she pulled a raggedy, folded up winter coat out from under her own. It was army green. Then she handed it to him.

Liam looked suspicious, but went ahead and took it. He immediately put it on and his teeth stopped chattering so fast. "Where'd you find this?" he asked gruffly.

"I have my ways," Rose said mysteriously.

"Thanks? I guess?" Liam said, starting to smile himself.

"Don't mention it," Rose said cheerfully, her smile turned into a full out grin. "Now, come on. We have a temple to find!" Rose said cheerfully as she practically bounced back into the frigid weather. Liam smiled at the back of her head before following her out into the snow.

Niella POV

Niella anchored herself down into the side of the cliff as a gust of wind howled past her. It seemed the farther she climbed up the mountain, the stronger the winds became.

"How much further is it?" She asked Borg, gritting her teeth against the wind.

"Not too much. You should catch sight of the temple once you round the corner." Borg told her, "If you don't get blown down the mountain before you get to it like you probably will that is."

"Gee thanks for the optimism," Niella growled. She put her hand up against the wind as it lessened in strength and struggled forward again.  
Rounding the corner, a huge gust of wind flattened her against a snow bank. She could hear Borg laughing as she struggled to ground herself against the wind. As much as she hated his smug face, she almost wished she could see it so that she would have something to glare at besides the blank empty whiteness of snow rushing towards her on the wind.

Squinting through the snow she could almost make out something up ahead to the left of her. Perhaps it was just a delusion, or perhaps it was the temple!

Liam POV

Liam followed the mysterious girl up the side of the mountain. He realized that the mystery of why he'd felt as though someone was following him was solved. What he didn't understand though, was how she had followed him. He had been trying very hard not to be followed by taking extensive twists and turns.

Regardless, he had to admit he was glad she had followed him. Without her, he probably would have been dead.

"The wind is awfully strong," Rose noted, squinting against the snow.

Liam didn't bother to reply. It was obvious that the wind was strong, what more was there to say?

It was clear Rose wanted to talk to him, but he didn't say anything further to invite conversation. So instead, a sort of awkward silence ensued, with nothing but the wailing of the wind to break it.

As they climbed higher up the mountain the temperatures continued to drop and the intensity of the wailing wind intensified. Liam shivered violently, even in his new coat, he could feel the cold wind burning against his skin. He wondered how Rose could stand it.

He turned around to look at her, and suddenly his heart dropped. She was just sitting in the snow, frozen in place a yard or two back. Mustering up all the energy he had, Liam waded through the snow back to her.

"Rose?!" He yelled over the wind, shaking her. She looked up and nodded feebly at him.

"You go on, I'll come and catch up…" She told him, "I just need to rest…"

"No," He helped her to her feet. She numbly complied, leaning into him because she was so cold.

"We'll stick together," he told her, "share our body heat."

Lora's POV

Lora was already regretting leaving Ninjago, and they had barely left the city. The air stank of death and decay, and she hated putting her little brother through such a thing.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Lora asked for the tenth time that day.

"Positive," Finn confirmed.

Lora grumbled as they walked, not wanting to risk her brother's life over some stupid message on a newspaper.

_Thirty Minutes Later…_

Lora and Finn stood at the bottom of a mountain, preparing themselves for the climb.

"Remember, stick together!" Lora warned.

"I know, I know," Finn said, although he was rather distracted by the excitement of climbing the mountain.

"Alright," Lora said, taking a deep breath and zipping up her coat. "Let's go."

Neila's POV

Neila approached the temple cautiously and peeked inside before entering. To her surprise, she saw an old man sitting in the center of the temple, drinking some tea.

"You came," he said without even looking at Neila.

"Who are you?" Neila asked, stepping into the temple.

"I," the old man started, "am Sensei Wu."


End file.
